The story that began with the discovery of a bloody foot

Luka Rocco Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Newman in Scarborough, Ont. before legally changing his name.

Photograph by: -
, AFP/Getty Images

The first body part was delivered to Conservative party headquarters on Albert Street in a brown-papered package. And when senior political staffer Jenni Byrne began to open the box on the morning of May 29, she was faced with blood and an overpowering foul stench.

Canada Post had unknowingly delivered a severed human left foot.

At the time, only one person — the killer — knew the left foot belonged to Jun Lin, a Chinese international student at Concordia University, and that the brutal dismemberment of Lin’s body had been recorded and the video posted online.

And only the killer knew that Lin’s left hand was inside a package addressed to the Liberal Party awaiting delivery at the Ottawa postal terminal.

But then there were reports of another grisly discovery in Montreal — a decomposing torso found stuffed in a suitcase next to a pile of garbage in an alley.

Soon an international manhunt would be launched for a 29-year-old suspect with an extensive and disturbing online profile. Glamour shots of a man with chiselled features and pursed lips promoted Luka Rocco Magnotta as a porn star but also condemned him as a twisted cat killer who posted videos of his crimes online.

He was born Eric Clinton Newman in Scarborough, Ont. before legally changing his name.

A blood-stained mattress was found in Magnotta’s Montreal apartment. Though Lin’s left hand was intercepted by Ottawa police before it could be delivered, his right hand and foot were each delivered to a Vancouver school.

Magnotta was tracked to Europe where he was arrested on June 4 at an Internet café while reading news stories about himself.

He was extradited to Montreal where he will stand trial for first-degree murder by a judge and jury. Magnotta has pleaded not guilty.

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